Description

SOUND OF CONFUSION, the Spacemen 3’s 1986 debut, is the band’s most song-oriented album. CONFUSION features several covers-including Glen Campbell’s “Mary Anne,” Iggy Pop’s “Little Doll,” and the band’s excellent extended reinterpretation of the 13th Floor Elevators’ psychedelic classic “Rollercoaster”- alongside such originals as “Walkin’ With Jesus,” the song that would become the Spacemen 3’s signature track.
Recording with a full-time drummer for the only time in the band’s six-year career, Pete “Sonic Boom” Kember and Jason “Spaceman” Pierce here show only hints of the sound-for-sound’s-sake obsessions of their later solo projects Spectrum and Spiritualized-particularly on the mesmerizing “Hey Man” and the sleepy “2.35.” Instead, most of the comparatively pop-oriented SOUND OF CONFUSION recalls the Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray” as reinterpreted by a group of electrified new-age musicians. The Taang! reissue contains bonus alternate versions of three tracks plus the otherwise unavailable “Feel So Good.”